Since the l960s, archaeology has become increasingly taught in universities and practised on a growing scale by national and local heritage agencies throughout the world. This book addresses the criticisms of post-modernist writers about its social role, and asserts its intellectual importance and achievements in discovering real facts about the human past, which are of concern to all thinking people. It looks forward to the creation of a truly global consciousness of the origins of human societies and civilisations.

'I recommend this provocative volume, in which I found much to think about, not least Sherratt's plea that archaeologists - not the media, tour managers or politicians - should be the ones who set the agenda.' Nick Saunders, New Scientist

Introduction: The sources of archaeological theory

The Social Context of Archaeological Theory

Limits to a post-processual archaeology (or The dangers of a new scholasticism)

A proliferation of new archaeologists 'Beyond objectivism and relativism'